Despite hard times for the industry, it’s been a fantastic year for bold, brilliant and innovative new video games, from dazzling platformers to cool detective games, mystery puzzlers, coming-of-age tales and so much more.
In the lead up to the new year, it’s time to reflect and reminisce about the year that’s been, and remember all the video games that brightened and emboldened us.
So far at ScreenHub, we’ve looked at our favourite games for PC, PlayStation and Xbox and Nintendo Switch. We’ve also rounded up our favourite indie games in a dedicated category.
Now, it’s time for the big one. To round out 2025, here’s ScreenHub’s top 10 overall best video games, ranked.
Top 10 video games of 2025 – quick links
10. Mario Kart World
Mario Kart World arrived as a launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2 and it was an immediate, well-deserving hit. There was plenty riding on this Mario Kart sequel, and plenty of questions about how it would live up to its dominant predecessors.
But with novel ideas about racing tracks and a fresh open world filled with bite-sized challenges, this title proved a fresh reinvention of the classic formula.
Read: Mario Kart World review: a familiar formula made fresh
It’s buoyed by lush visuals wherever you look and racing tracks that hide secrets. You can stomp your way through galleons, deserts and fields as one of many characters, with collectable outfits and other neat surprises waiting around each corner.
In future, we expect (and hope) Mario Kart World will be expanded – but even as it stands, it’s still one of the best Nintendo Switch video games of 2025.
9. Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping
Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping is a cosy detective adventure game that’s very short and sweet. You play as the titular Duck Detective, returning from his first adventure (The Secret Salami) to reluctantly solve a brand new case. What he really wants is a relaxing time on holiday, but as The Ghost of Glamping opens, what The Duck Detective really gets is a light-hearted ghost mystery.
You roam this game looking for clues about the presence of a campsite ghost, uncovering all sorts of secrets along the way, including hidden relationships and crushes and why one of the camp counsellors won’t stop sweating. With well-designed deduction (‘deducktion’) and logic-based reason defining this adventure, it’s a quacking good time.
8. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
It would be unsurprising to see Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sweeping the video games awards over the next few months given its many nominations. This original fantasy adventure follows a group of travellers pushing back against the call of destiny, as they fight for their freedom and their lives in a dark, dystopian world.
While the narrative reaches fairly grim territory, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s light shines with each step thanks to a flashy art style and consistently breathtaking visuals. This is a game that brims with real magic and makes a shocking impact with each twist and turn.
7. Blue Prince
Blue Prince is just excellent. In a year of great puzzle video games, it was a cut above the rest thanks to its many, many layers and how it leads players down rabbit holes. You begin in a seemingly normal manor, but quickly discover rooms that seem to shift and change around you, with each housing its own array of head-scratching secrets, some of which will disappear when you blink.
In its mix of mechanics and ever-shifting gameplay, Blue Prince is a fantastic, novel experience that feels so different from everything else. While it combines elements from many video games, including virtual escape rooms, there’s nothing expected or typical about how this adventure plays out.
6. Pokémon Legends: Z-A
It’s rare that a video games franchise continues to surprise, decades after it debuted – but in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, developer Game Freak delivered something dazzling. This game is an evolution of the franchise formula that’s sharp, snappy and exciting in each new phase.
It consistently introduces fresh new gameplay options as a compelling plot advances, with fun traversal challenges, sleek Pokémon collecting and moreish exploration opportunities providing ample reasons to forge on.
Read: Pokémon Legends Z-A review: a bold new frontier
At its core, Pokémon Legends: Z-A remains a relatively linear experience, encouraging players along a pathway that features Pokémon catching and evolution as you bond with a team of creature friends. But much like its Legends predecessor Arceus, there’s a breezy freedom in how you embark on your adventure.
5. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is a massive RPG adventure that takes everything from the original Fantasy Life, and makes it bigger and more impressive. The freedom afforded by this game and its loosey-goosey structure is what really makes it a blast. Here, you can be a warrior fighting dragons and beasties. You can also be a woodchopper, or a fisher, or a cook. You can even be an artist.
No matter which life you choose, you have so many options available to you, all housed within a sweeping fantasy story involving time travel and multi-island adventures. This is a vast game with a very ambitious scope but spending time in its world is so very rewarding.
4. Hollow Knight: Silksong
Hollow Knight: Silksong landed with aplomb this year, honouring its predecessor with bolder, more ambitious worlds and equally challenging, moreish gameplay. You’ll need a strong heart and quick hands to defeat every boss in this tale, but there’s nothing quite like the joy of victory in Silksong.
Like The Drifter, this is another brilliant Australian-made experience that made a significant impact on the world of video games in 2025.
It’s really got the works: it’s beautiful and well-designed, its combat is sharp and snappy and its world is entirely enthralling. Hollow Knight: Silksong deserves all the praise it’s been given this year.
3. Promise Mascot Agency
Promise Mascot Agency is a collection of very cool, very bizarre ideas that all work together in seamless fashion. For one thing, this game is a narrative adventure about a mafia enforcer who’s exiled after being blamed for major financial mismanagement.
For another thing, it’s also a creature management game, where you must lead life-sized, sentient mascots through various trials and tribulations as they complete their jobs. It’s also an open world video game collect-a-thon where you must destroy garbage and exorcise spirits in a nature-filled overworld.
Somehow, all of these parts work so well together, encouraging you to lock in and explore for hours and hours, romping through story, cleaning trash and looking after your menagerie of mascot creatures. Perhaps one of the weirdest video games on this list, Promise Mascot Agency is also one of the most endearing.
2. South of Midnight
South of Midnight deserved more love this year. What a beautiful, impactful game with such novel ideas! In this adventure you play as Hazel, a young girl who learns she’s destined to be a magical Weaver. This is not only a vast and imaginative fantasy adventure, it’s also a lush coming of age story, all about growing up and untangling – then re-embracing – the bonds of family.
Everything about this game is magical, from its stop motion-style artwork, which evokes a storybook tale, to its wall-to-wall banger soundtrack. It’s a demonstration of just how cohesive and beautiful video games can be when they’re driven by the passion of a talented team.
1. The Drifter
The Drifter is a phenomenal point-and-click adventure game that delivers a well-paced sci-fi story riddled with wild, well-controlled twists. It’s also very beautiful, buoyed by a clean pixelised art style and sleek animation that adds drama and flair to each story beat.
Read: The Drifter review: a noir video games adventure that takes you ’round the twist
The Drifter is a game that constantly keeps you guessing. The plot advances at a steady pace – while holding its biggest reveals for exactly the right moment. This game really is a staggering achievement for Aussie-based development team Powerhoof.
